[1] He became a secretary of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees, and realised the "divisive power of race to stop union organising".
[1] The United Transport Service Employees (UTSE) was originally known as the International Brotherhood of Redcaps, but changed their name after inviting pullman laundry workers to join.
This success arrived in 1940, when it was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that red caps would be paid ten cents for each parcel or piece of luggage carried to and from trains.
[10] In 1942 the UTSE became affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and Townsend became the first African-American to hold office in a national union.
[2][4] Following the success of Townsend's unions, the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks of the American Federation of Labor, opened their membership to red caps.
[2] Townsend was selected for a World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) committee that studied working conditions in Japan, China, Korea and the Philippines.
He called for Japanese labourers to not become involved with political battles, and suggested that they visited the United States to study their trade union methods.
That year he also attended the American Missionary Association's Institute of Race Relations, where he criticised the influence of communism on the trade union movement.
He served as an adviser for the International Labor Office meeting in Mexico, where he worked to eliminate race discrimination.